Lives in a Fairytale
by TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba
Summary: Toby is running the Labyrinth. That's is, he's in charge. He's also Running it too. Indy birthday fic
1. I

Disclaimer: My rights and ownership were wished away long ago

So Indigo - Night-Wisp wrote this story, a bunch of sentences designed to target my plot fox and make me write her fic. Because I believe she's a little devious like that.

She's also pretty fantastic so it's okay. And lateness aside, Happy Birthday!

When did I get so nitpicky?

* * *

090 (Un)fit to rule

_Toby lounges on the Goblin Throne, outwardly calm and collected but inwardly panicking more and more with every day that he spends ruling the Labyrinth; he never really appreciated before just how much work went into it, being king and queen was just something Jareth and his sister did (in their spare time, really, when they weren't playing with Toby), but now they're gone and he's been trying to find them for two weeks now but there's just no time and he has no idea what he's doing and really, his certain granted powers as the Royal Brother-in-Law only go so far and the Labyrinth is beginning to get restless._

His mom and dad are fine with it because they think it means Toby is spending the weekend with Sarah and her completely ordinary (ordinary as in a totally eccentric but fully human) husband with the slightly odd name, odder mannerisms, and deep affection for the eighties. It is entirely subjective because the weekend on his parents' side of things is constantly being re-wound every two days, and Toby is starting to worry about breaking time (which might not be bad if it gets a Time Lord's attention, preferably the nice one, and he can convince him to help find Sarah and Jareth).

The entire thing is more pressure than he can take, especially with four - that is, count 'em, one, two, three, four!- Runners in the Labyrinth. And the Labyrinth is being really vindictive. She is not happy with Toby on the throne, it isn't right, and everybody who is anybody knows it. It's not that the Labyrinth doesn't like Toby, she adores him like Jareth does, but Toby is not Jareth, and she wants Jareth.

Toby is twelve, he's in the sixth grade, his voice hasn't even cracked yet, but somehow the royal couple thought it would be okay to leave him in charge while they went off to who knows where, just for a day or two, Toby, we'll be back before you know it and you'll do fine.

Lie, lie, and lie. Fine is not the spiral he finds himself riding ever downward. He can feel the Labyrinth pulling away from him, catering to her own whims, evidence by the fact that the Fierys are loose in the outer walls. They do not belong there, there's a reason they're confined to the forest. It's because they eat everything. Everything, rocks, crystals, worms, fairies, goblins. The Runners, if they're too slow. So far none have been, but there had been a few close calls where he's had to intervene, and he knows something is wrong if he actively has to aid the Runners. He isn't supposed to be the hero.

Toby cannot be everywhere at once. He doesn't know how, and now is not the time to experiment with that sort of thing. Frankly, he is exhausted trying to live up to everyone's expectations of him. He can't go looking for them himself; he's needed here, bound here, and sending the goblins out by themselves is just bad. He's not very good at instantaneous travel anyway. Usually, when he's summoned, the Labyrinth flings him and yanks him back like a yo-yo.

This is unacceptable, entirely, and the moment they return, he is going to Bog them.

The Labyrinth agrees and smiles, a mean thing with a flint of malice, and yes, she's definitely gotten more vindictive. It's really starting to unnerve him.

Toby sits on the throne, worrying his lip while goblins entertain the Wished Aways. The kids seem happy enough, punting chickens about. One is deep asleep in the pillow pit, encircled in a ring of goblins to protect him from flying feathers.

Toby makes his face look like Jareth's, when he's being kingly and an utter pratt. He waves his hand about, carelessly meaningful. He takes that tone, the seemingly light one with the deeper note of command.

"I wish the goblins would take, er, bring Jareth and Sarah. Right now."

The goblins at his feet (which there are rather a lot of because they're hiding from the Fierys) look at him blankly. Toby looks back, feeling his mask crack, crumple, drop.

"Please?"

Toby feels a tickle along his spine and knows what's coming.

"Oh, no."

The tickle grows into an itch and spreads.

"Don't say it don't say it don't -"

"I wish the goblins would come take you away right now!"

Toby lets out a bone-deep groan a moment before the Labyrinth violently flings him and a dozen goblins to fetch the fresh meat.

Because if she's not happy, nobody is.

* * *

Sarah isn't happy. Jareth isn't either. She blames him, but it's not his fault. His seeming omniscience (which is really a product of obsessive control issues and absolute power) doesn't extend outside his kingdom.

But it isn't like it was a situation they were walking into blind. He knew exactly what they were getting into, agreeing to come here. He had made it seem like it was their only choice, to prevent nothing short than a force of nature from overtaking the Underground. Which, she supposes, is true.

The Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Empress of the Lone Islands, Lady of Cair Paraval , the White Witch, Destroyer of Charn.

Jareth's mother.

She has an opulent flat in London Below, the theme apparently being winter, what with all the ivory, silvery cool tones, furs, and crystals. Circumstances that brought her here has taken much of her power, a cost to escape her fate. It will never return to her, and now she's used what remains to carve out her own little empire. There's much demand Below, little supply, and Jadis has always been a gifted at getting people what they want. So long as it goes along with what she wants.

The former tyrant has a snide, backhanded comment on everything, about her son from his hair to his boots to the way he runs his kingdom, about Jareth's father, about everything.

She doesn't say a thing about Sarah, in her continued campaign of pretending that her son did not bind himself to a daughter of Eve.

Sarah doesn't see how Jadis has any room to criticize Jareth's decisions as a monarch, all things considered. Or his fashion sense, because she's pretty certain Jadis is trying to pull off wearing a pale blue snake skin as a dress, which actually makes her look like a lizard. Although as far as Jareth's father is concerned, she's pretty spot on.

They've met.

She hates it, how subdued he is. All 'Yes, Mother' and 'No, Mother'. He insists that one has to pick and choose battles when it comes to Jadis. So far, the strategy has apparently been abject surrender. Also, she's heard more than enough about what a despicable, obsessive, controlling troll Jareth's father is.

"He calls himself king, but when has he ever ruled? When has he had to defend his right to sovereignty? All he ever concerns himself with is the next Hunt."

"Then why'd you hook up with him in the first place?" Sarah blurts out, and suddenly there is total silence.

Slowly, Jareth turns to Sarah and makes a face. Jadis pauses a moment, perhaps surprised to hear Sarah speak. Over the past two long weeks (Really, it was meant to be a short visit, but Jadis guilt-tripped like a pro, and Jareth is a mama's boy) Sarah has said nearly less than Jareth while in Jadis' presence but mostly because the fallen queen completely ignored her.

Now those stone cold eyes are zeroed in on Sarah, who doesn't quite hold back a shiver. Jadis sets her tea cup down, porcelain clinking deliberately.

"Have you met Herne?"

"We're...acquainted."

By acquainted, she means to say the Erlking kidnapped her once. That's apparently a thing with men in this family, which makes Sarah passingly wonder what Jadis and Herne's courtship was like. Jareth gives her another look.

Jadis nods and asks, "Have you seen his trousers?"

Jareth presses his fingers against his temples.

"Yeah, I -," Sarah admits. "Yeah."

What? Jareth takes after his daddy in fashion sense.

Sarah is a little pink-faced, Jareth has one hand over his eyes, and then Jadis smirks. Cold calculation makes her eyes sparkle.

"Tell me, Sarah dear, how many sons and daughters will you bear? I might like to take on one or two and teach them some real magic."

"Oh. Er."

* * *

Toby can't get away with wearing leather pants. That's Jareth's thing, let no others imitate. No, Toby is dressed like himself in a striped crew neck t-shirt, jeans, and Vans. He wears a great leather coat that dusts his ankles, and the Pendant, a thin circlet of gold atop his sandy blond hair, and a scepter.

Because it's cool.

(Because he's twelve, and he kind of thinks it makes him look like a pimp.)

It doesn't have the same effect, he looks like a kid let loose in a costume shop, but the goblins really help sell it when the Runner stares with his mouth open.

Nudging a doll aside, Toby sets the scepter firmly on the kitchen floor (that has peas and spaghetti everywhere, including the boy which is rather telling), leaning on it with both hands. He wishes for a little wind to make his coat flare out a bit. Channeling the Goblin King himself, he shakes his head and tutts, says,

"Well, that's a fine mess, isn't it, Arthur?"

Arthur gapes.

Toby doesn't have presence (he is not a six foot fae king who sheds glitter and feathers) but he has dramatic flair - Thank you for that, Sarah, Jareth. And he has two dozen red eyes peering out of the sudden darkness occupying one corner of the hallway entrance, and even if they didn't teach him how to run a kingdom, his sister and brother-in-law taught him drama.

"Who are you?" Arthur demands.

Toby knows his part well at this point. He'll bow his head a bit, introduce himself as the acting Goblin King and Lord of the Labyrinth, and would you like to play a game?

However, there are five children (there are a set of identical twins, joy) all under the age of six being babysat by goblins already; he doesn't need another. He doesn't want another Wished Away or Runner, because the Labyrinth is trying to kill them, he's losing his mind, and he is not changing anymore dirty diapers.

He's not even going to think about all the paperwork he hasn't even touched.

So he jabs a thumb at himself and says, "I'm Toby. And you have two options to get your sister back. You can try and find your way through the Labyrinth which is alive and a little homicidal. There are also cannibals, goblins, and fairies, which are also cannibals. I mean, they bite."

"What's my other option?"

The crystal ball'ing has all but been mastered over the years, and Toby balances it on a finger. He wills his intent into the thing and purpose, like Jareth showed him.

"It's more of a mission, a very special one. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the true Goblin King and his Queen. This crystal should guide you but don't lose it or you'll never find your way."

Toby flicks his finger, and the crystal floats like a bubble into the other boy's hands.

"That's all I get? I don't get a weapon or a shield or a cloak?"

Toby rolls his eyes and spots a blue, fuzzy throw blanket. He hurls it at Arthur's face.

"There's your cloak. Now get going, you don't have all night. Thirteen hours actually."

Toby waves a hand, directing the command of Find them into the orb, and that's as much as he can do. As his hand passes over Arthur, he disappears.

If the Labyrinth can mess with the rules, why can't he? He feels a little better until he feels a warm trail up his spine, an impression of laughter that makes him tremble, and the Labyrinth throws him.

* * *

The Labyrinth is more than alive. It's intelligent, highly underestimated, possess a volatile set of emotions, a skewed sense morals... It's a woman, basically.

Which means she's a little crazy, as Toby, young though he is, has observed is a common trait in women. She has hurled him far from her center, purposely near the Runner Alice who has spent most of her time hiding from fairies. Now in a glade surrounded by woods, he feels more than a little frustrated. Knowing the realm as well as he does, he knows exactly how far he is from the castle.

"You can't do it like this," Toby argues to what seems to be the air. "You're practically a whole reality against a bunch of scared kids. And now you're just being mean, letting out the minotaur and the clowns."

Toby didn't even know they had clowns until he heard screams echoing out of the maze and looked. He nearly started screaming himself. Clowns shouldn't have teeth like that.

"It's just not a fair game, " He says, very stupid and provocative in hindsight.

That's exactly when Alice comes screaming out of the forest with a clown hoard cackling after her.

He has made his move, taken a risk with Arthur. He's a huge gamble, not being like Sarah at all. At some point, the Labyrinth has changed the rules again and started a new round. It's her against the Runners. And him.

Apparently, she's taking Jareth's role. The villain, the big bad antagonist. And Toby has Sarah's, that of the champion. The Runner's Champion. He can't go back to the castle, not with magic because she won't let him. He has to do it the long way, and help the Runners make it because all of the Wished Aways are not toilet trained, and the throne room stinks.

"Hey!" He shouts, catching everyone's attention. "Follow me!"

Alice didn't even hesitate, changing courses so quickly, she kicks up dust. The clowns are less graceful, tripping over their feet and each other. It affords them time to get ahead as Alice seizes his hand, and they charge into the trees together.

There are clowns chasing him, and Alice, who looks nothing like the storybook version, is holding on to his hand tight and slowing him down quite a lot. However, Toby has been playing here for most of his childhood, and he knows the tricks. The Pendant around his neck and the Order from a Sovereign grant him a certain edge as well.

They guide him to the way he is looking for, to the peach tree, and Toby presses against a knobby pattern in the wood. A door opens, short enough that they have to crouch to go through and pitch black. It seals shut behind them.

"I don't like clowns," Alice gasps.

"Me neither. Hey, don't scream, okay?"

A few more steps, and the ground falls away, plunging them down further into darkness.

Of course Alice screams.

They tumble out into the outer courtyard with moving walls, with the puzzle doors, and the helping hands. His hand is really starting to hurt, and he's trying to think of a nice way to yank his hand free.

"Do you hear that?" Alice asks.

She's squeezing his hand even harder now. Toby listens though. It's a clop sort of sound, like hooves on paved ground. Only the pattern is wrong for a horse, or goat, or any four-legged creature like that. It's too quick and too few clops.

It's the minotaur, he realizes, when it bellows out an engaged roar, a sound like a bulldozer and a lion.

He shoots down a path without thinking, knowing the way. Around a corner, he brushes aside a curtain of vines, drags Alice into an alcove of stone and tree roots, and presses a hand over her mouth to keep her from breathing so loudly.

Slow steps trace their path, halting only a few feet from their shelter. He hears the deep huffs, a gravelly rumble out of its throat.

Trembling, he barely breathes when a shadow touches the curtain hiding them. Alice stops breathing entirely and turns her face into his chest, arms tight around his middle. He watches the shadow move away, listens for the clopping to fade, and does not move.

And all the while, he wills one word into the Pendant around his neck.

Hide.

He waits a full minute after the noise fades, distance and stillness. And another minute after that.

"It's okay. It's gone."

Alice's breath comes out in a shaky gasp, and she's trembling all over, and Toby feels an inch tall. He pats her back awkwardly, murmuring I'm sorry and it's okay, your sister's okay. Alice cries.

Alice is ten.

Why did he ever think being Goblin King was so great anyway?

Something crashes into their hiding place, skidding to a rough stop, and Toby starts screaming with Alice.

"Shut up, idiots, they'll hear you!" Jason, the invader, hisses at them.

Jason was the second Runner to start and his time is wearing down. He hasn't had it easy either. The Labyrinth keeps trying to toss him in the Bog, as if the boy personally offended her.

But Jason doesn't know the Labyrinth is out to get him; naturally, he thinks it's the brat who appeared in his house on a cloud of glitter (that's non-negotiable), and kidnapped his twin brothers, and brought him here.

So he isn't surprised when, after he takes a good look at him, Jason tries to punch him in the face. Alice tugs him out of the way.

"No, he saved me!" Alice says.

"He brought us here, and I'm gonna make him take us back!"

Jason lunges again, feints, and gets around the petite girl. There's a fist coming at Toby's face, but suddenly there's not because now he's behind Jason, who tumbles through a cloud of fairy dust and into the stone wall.

Teleporting is only doable with sight lines and short distances. He decides to talk fast before Jason gains his balance because the other boy is bigger and angrier than he is, and he can't keep doing that.

"Listen for a minute, okay? I'm on your side now. The Labyrinth changed the rules. It - she's alive and upset and she's been taking it out on everyone."

"Why should we trust you? How do we know this isn't some sick trick?"

Toby blinks and says, "Um."

"I don't think we have a choice," Alice says quietly. "If it's a trap, it doesn't matter because we'll never make it on our own anyway."

"Forget him then. You can come with me."

Alice is no longer huddled in his arms but next to him, holding his hand. She takes a step forward, and he realizes that she's defending him, all four feet nine inches of her. He has no shame in letting her. Jason towers over the both of them. "No offense, but you don't look like you're doing that great."

He doesn't. His clothes are tattered, filthy, and he's a little bruised and scraped here and there. He looks ready for a fight and determined to win every one.

He looks scared.

"I promise this isn't a trick," Toby says. "I'll make sure you're all okay. I promise."

Toby holds out his hand, knowing it's ridiculous. But he trying to fix this because he messed up. He didn't know what he was agreeing to when he said he'd look after things. This is much different than playing around the kingdom with Hoggle, and Didymus and everyone. This is serious. This is someone's family.

Jason glares at him, ignoring his hand, and says, "If this is a trick, I swear I'll make you regret it."

Toby already regrets it.


	2. II

**Two years later: disclaimer **

**I failed to mention: Jadis as Jareth's mother comes from Pika-la-cynique on Deviantart. She's created a gorgeous comic where Jareth and Sarah live in a meta-apartment with their roommates (Phantom of the Opera) and full of fandoms. I mean, full. It's awesome. You should be reading it.**

* * *

Jareth regrets this so much. He can't imagine what evil he has done to merit this.

His mother and his wife are getting along.

Jadis and Sarah.

She Who Held Narnia in a Hundred Years' Winter and She Who Trashed Goblin City and His Heart in Less than Thirteen Hours.

It's a nightmare.

"That insufferable need for constant adoration and attention of his comes from his father. If you give in just once, he'll never stop. That's basically how the entire courtship went."

"Yeah, that sounds familiar." Sarah gives him a pointed look.

His face is still frozen in shocked horror.

"Adoration is hardly as important as fear though. You'd be amazed at what people will do when properly motivated."

"Like overthrow a Goblin village," she says pointedly.

"Or swear fealty of their entire species to you. That is real power. Better than love."

"Well, I wouldn't be too sure about that."

Mother twists her lips into that chipped ice smile. "You're very young. You don't know any better. Live a little longer, dear, then we'll talk of love and fear."

For a moment, Sarah does that annoyed look just before she gets mule headed stubborn. Precious doesn't like being dismissed, and Jareth feels a swell of hope.

But then, Mother asks, "Instead, would you like to hear about when my horrid little boy was bested by an English baker?"

"He wasn't a baker, Mother, he lived on Baker Street," he says, finding his voice to defend himself. "And he did not best me."

"You truly live in your own world if you believe that. "

"Besides," He waves a hand and gives Sarah a look. "I don't think anyone wants to hear about that."

"Oh, yeah, I kinda do," says his treacherous wife. "Is this guy still alive? I might want to meet him."

Honestly, if he didn't absolutely love (and fear, just a little) that woman, he'd toss her in the Bog. But then, her insolence and defiance were two of the things that drew him to her in the first place.

"I'm sure I can arrange something."

"Mother, please, let it go."

"We are talking, sweetling," His mother says. "Hush."

Sarah is smiling, delighted, mentally taking notes, scheming against him. Jadis is looking at her, calculating, suddenly realizing the perfection of the opportunity in front of her.

A shudder runs through him. His wife and his mother are becoming allies.

He is doomed.

* * *

Sitting cross-legged in their crowded hiding place, Toby tries to find the others, scrying through a crystal ball, but everything is just a smear of colors and vague shapes. Jason glares at him. Alice watches the shadows beyond the vines. It won't work, and he doesn't know what to do.

He's tried everything he knows which isn't much and a couple of things he made up. Jareth's instructions have never been entirely clear.

_"Just," the Goblin King flaps a hand vaguely, confused by his confusion, "_do _it."_

He has tried that, willing and doing and telling the Pendant to Help, but it just...doesn't. Legs folded on the floor and crystal cupped in his hands, Toby confesses, "Yeah. I got nothing."

Toby flinches when Jason steps forward, probably to punch him, but Alice asks, "Now what?"

Rising to his feet, he tosses the crystal over his shoulder, which vanishes before it shatters, declaring, "We look for the others while avoiding the clowns, the minotaurs, fairies, Fierys, and whatever else the Labyrinth tries to throw at us."

Jason looks at him for a long moment.

"You suck," he says with feeling. He still looks like he wants to beat Toby who is trying to look like he's not purposely keeping Alice between them.

All in all, they manage to fail completely in under ten minutes.

Alice literally trips over a dismembered Fiery leg and shrieks. That draws all of their attention, of course.

He's seen the Fierys in their normal mood, playful and precociously psychotic. He's never seen them full on rabid, foaming at the mouth, and _have their teeth always been that pointy_?

"Stay behind me!"

Why _did I say that?_

He feels the others huddle behind him. It's a nice feeling, having people trust him like that (although he's pretty sure Jason just wants him as a meat shield). It's also really, really terrifying.

If he had a sword, then he could fight. If he had a chicken or a goblin, he could throw it, use it as a distraction and run. (The Fierys wouldn't eat them; chickens and goblins fight to _win_.) He takes stock of what he does have: a half a stick of gum, a number of ready-to-be-apparated crystal balls, the Pendant...

...he is an idiot.

Fierys are simple (stupid), but they recognise the Pendant around his neck and feel its aura. They won't hurt him.

He really hopes they won't hurt him.

Toby grabs at the Pendant and holds it up so they can get a good look.

"You see this? You! Put your eyes back in your head and have a good look. This means that I am in charge of you, and I command you to leave us, or suffer the consequences!"

_Please please please oh please._

They look at Toby, look at each other, then look at the Runners.

"_She_ tells us who we hunt, little morsel."

"And _She_ says you're fair game. "

Then they laugh, high and hysterical, very much like hyenas, and start circling. Alice starts crying again but makes a fist. Swearing, Jason picks up a stick and gives it to Alice then takes off his belt, striking it against the ground and making the buckle jagged. He doesn't even look at Toby.

Absently, Toby takes note of that and resolves not to get caught alone with the violent, vengeful, larger-than-him boy.

"Ludo!" Toby calls.

The Fierys jump right over him, one hooking Alice's sweater, knocking her on her rear. With a terrified scream, Alice swings the stick like an amateur but lands a hit hard enough to knock a Fierys' head off. Jason strikes out with the belt, making the Fierys hiss and growl and spit at him. He doesn't see the one behind him. Toby does, tackling it to the ground.

"Sir Didymus!" Toby shouts.

The Fiery fights him, limbs and joints twists in impossible, sickening ways. Toby keeps as tight a hold as he can but feels his grip weakening and hears everyone yelling.

"Help!" He shrieks at the top of his lungs.

He hears a hollow thud, and the Fiery is suddenly limp in his grasp. Toby looks up a short ways and sags with relief. He almost starts crying (only a little, he's not a total baby).

"Hoggle! It's you!"

"I know perfectly well it's me. Who else would I be, I'd like to know?" He grumps, swings his club again, and a Fiery loses its jaw. "I don't know who in their right mind would want to be me."

Normally, Hoggle is a bumbling coward. But Sarah has a magic about her that can turn a surly, cowardly, self-serving troll into a grumpy, grumbling, irritable hero of a sort, and Sarah would so hate if her little brother were eaten. She might yell, or worse _cry. _He'd rather go up against Jareth in all his resplendent wrath than face that.

Hoggle keeps mumbling about people thinking he's other people when he's not, he's Hoggle, H-O-G-something or other, and it's not a hard name at all, swatting at Fierys all the while. He beats at them enough that Toby and the other Runners can fight back too, and soon they send the rest running.

Hoggle is still muttering to himself when the last one chases his head around the corner.

"Hoggle. Hoggle!" Toby says.

"What?" The troll snaps at him. Toby isn't offended. Rude is one of Hoggle's defining personality traits.

"I'm glad you showed up, Hoggle. Really."

"Oh. Well. That's fine then. It's good I did. You lot weren't doin' too good."

"Will you stay with us, please?" Alice asked. "Please?"

"Yeah, man, we could use you," Jason agrees, shaking his hand out. "This kid is useless."

"Well, he is technically nobility..." Hoggle mumbles, like it's a matter of course.

Toby is _standing right here_, but he's not going to be petty about it since everyone almost died. It's still annoying though.

"Will you, Hoggle? Please?" He asks.

"Well, all right. So long as none of you kiss me. Last time someone kissed me, I nearly got Bogged."

He smiles, dropping a hand on Hoggle's shoulder. "We'll try to restrain ourselves. Now, we need to find the others."

"Oh, I know where they are."

"Where?" A trio of voices burst out.

Hoggle frowns at them. "Don't _do_ that. And, at the beginning."

* * *

**This part has been done for the longest. It's the next bit that I've been finding tricky.**


	3. III

Toby is starting to panic a little.

He isn't a magical creature, but his time here when he was a baby affected him. Jareth nurtured the gift into a talent, a skill, but if he can't focus - _curling_ _shadows, growling, heart in his ears, _and _twisting guilt, breathless doubt _\- if the entire world is against him, then he doesn't stand a chance.

She's changed the path, twisted and turned them around. Even Hoggle is confused. At the very beginning, looking for a wall that isn't a wall; it's really the simplest part of the run. Usually. Hoggle mumbles about his aching feet, foppish kings, and insolent mazes. The rest trail him, hands on the walls, eyes watchful.

Toby screams like a little girl in so many minutes when he is tackled around the middle. It's a brief cry because the air rushes out in a squeak when his back hits the ground. His head cracks against the ground, and there's a weight on his chest, and someone is shaking him like a rag doll.

"Give me my sister, give me my sister, give her back!" A voice shrieks, probably at him.

_Ow, ow, ow, ow, _Toby thinks. _Oh, look, we found Emma. _

Almost reluctantly, Jason pulls the flailing girl off Toby, and he takes back everything bad he thought about the other boy.

"If everyone would stop attacking me, that'd be great," Toby mutters as he picks himself up out of the dirt, swaying a little.

"You took my sister!" Emma is trying her best to wrestle out of Jason's grip. She comes close when an elbow catches him in the gut, but he grunts and shifts his hold.

Toby talks quickly. "I know, I'm sorry, and I'm trying to fix it. Do you want to help me fix it?"

Emma stills, wisps of blonde hair loose from their braid and around her head. She's older than Alice, maybe fourteen, but she looks even more upset than her, more panicked.

"I didn't mean it. I - I really do want her back, please. I don't have anyone else."

"Okay," Toby says, head throbbing. He touches the back of his head, a little surprised that he's not bleeding. "We'll get her back." He looks at the others. "We're going to get everyone back. Let's go."

Jason sets her down and backs off. Alice steps up and offers her hand. Emma takes it like a lifeline, biting back tears.

"Everything's gonna be fine. He knows that he's an idiot, and he's really sorry about it," Alice tells her.

"Yeah," Jason agrees, "And if everything isn't fine, I'll hold him, you punch."

Emma stares at them all with water-bright blue eyes. Toby straightens up under the scrutiny because Emma might actually be the prettiest girl he's ever seen, even if she probably just gave him a concussion.

"Okay," Emma finally says.

"Can we go now?" Hoggle asks, gesturing onward.

They go.

* * *

One needs to understand something about the Labyrinth in order to control it properly. Several things, really, but two are the most important. _It_, in an anthropomorphic, gender-specific sort of way, is a _she_. And once that is made plain, things become at once simpler and levels more complex.

Women are mad things, made up of impulse and emotion, logic all their own, and willfulness. The thing that made the Labyrinth lives and breathes and recognizes itself as she is more so. It is _more_ everything.

The other fact is that though the Labyrinth is countless ages old, she is very much a brat who would prefer to get her way. She would prefer to have no king to rule or guide her, stretch out her influence and power Above and bring the whole world down to her level. Goblins and Wished-Aways are well and good, Jareth is her Heart and King, Sarah her Champion, but variety is the spice of life.

Someone who is weak, someone who cowers, someone who doesn't know their own strength - that one hasn't a chance of commanding her.

Jareth is neither weak or cowering, fully aware of every bit of his power. But Toby, sweet and young and so stupid...

* * *

Emma helps them find the way out. She'd found her way out before on her own but the Labyrinth dropped her back there when she chose wrong at the Oubliette. But of course, things can't remain easy.

The five of them emerge into a field of rippling gold. Stalks of wheat bow in an unending wind, the sound like a flock of birds in flight. It stretches as far as Toby can see in all directions. The sky isn't really sky since they are Underground, but a mass of condensation and fog. Toby has always called it the ceiling, and Jareth would grin and say, "Just so." The orange light is impossibly bright, making his eyes water a bit. What he sees are no trees, no hills, he can barely tell the ceiling from the floor as the field stretches endlessly before them.

He's never seen this place before.

"Are we still in the Labyrinth?" Emma asks.

Toby tosses a questioning look to Hoggle. The troll shrugs.

"Yes," Toby says. Because he's eighty-five percent sure that they are. "But I've never been here before."

"Useless," Jason mutters loud enough to be heard.

Toby would be offended if it wasn't actually really true. He hasn't done much of anything since he's been tossed in here. He supposes he saved Alice, but they are all still trapped in here. His head aches, and he doesn't defend himself.

"It's okay. Let's just go back and try a...a different..." Alice turns, stuttering to a stop.

Everyone else turns around, except Toby. He doesn't want to see. He knows it's bad, but he doesn't want to look. Jason swears loudly, and Toby's ears burn. He turns to look. The gray stone, ages and ages old and worn smooth by searching hands and immovable, is gone. It's only the field all around them.

"Huh. Any ideas?" Toby asks. "I'm totally open to any and all ideas here."

"Oh, I got a few," Jason snarls at him, hands tightening into fists.

"Is the wind picking up?" Emma asks, nervous.

It is. The wind bends the tall stalks fully in half. Everyone braces low to keep from toppling over. Toby's coat wraps around his legs, dirt whipping into his eyes.

"Look!" Alice yells.

There are no actual clouds Underground because, technically there's no sky. Despite the technicality, a funnel spins down from sick, gray haze. It curls with frightening grace down to touch the ground. It runs along the earth, parallel to them and miles away. From this distance, it's a beautiful sight. Terrifying and awesome.

Until it turns on the spot, veering straight for them.

"No freaking way," Jason says, shaking his head.

But it is. Of course it is.

Jason doesn't need to be told, already running and pulling Alice with him. Emma and Hoggle hurry after them, but Toby stands still. His head hurts, and he is so tired of running. His lips twist into an adolescent scowl, one-third of it a pout.

"Stop it."

The others weren't going to make it. It was just playing with them and would snatch them up, one by one or all at once. It didn't matter. The Labyrinth was going to win.

Somehow, he never realized the true nature of this place. Beautiful and wild and deadly. Without Jareth to reign over the Labyrinth, to coddle and scold, it does as it likes. The Labyrinth isn't human. It isn't fair. It's a brat and a bully, operating on a give-and-take basis. It will take and take and take everything it can get away with and give nothing back.

Toby doesn't understand any of this, not as he should. He doesn't truly grasp the power he has, not since his time there as a baby or everything Jareth's exposed him to since. What he does know is that he is sick of running, they don't have time for doubt, and he is the only one with a hope of stopping this. In that moment, he knows everything necessary.

"I said stop!" Toby yells, loud and furious, petulant and demanding.

The twister, steadily bearing down on him, hesitates. They face off, the ill-temper of a place made sentient and an irritated, concussed child. The twister spins, trying to drag him in, but Toby refuses to back down or be moved, even though his eyes water from the tempest. He's made up his mind to absolutely not lose here. He will not blink first.

Jareth gave him this kingdom, if only for a little while, but the realm has a will all its own. And Toby has decided, finally, here and now - _I rule. _His will is magnified by the Pendant, his doubts falling away. Nothing, not even an entire sentient Eldritch realm, is going to change his mind now.

Toby raises his hand and brushes it through the air, like shooing a gnat. The twister vanishes, wind dying on a gasp. He _feels _an argument coming, a _But _forming on a tongue.

"No." He uses the same flat tone Sarah uses on Jareth in the midst of one of his fits. "Just no, we're so done."

He snaps his fingers, and the twisters breaks apart into a soft breeze. A wave of the hand summons the clocks.

"All clocks stop." Before him in midair, each Runners' clock freezes. Jason only has minutes. "I call foul on the play. All Runs don't count, and everybody goes home."

That isn't the proper way, he knows but doesn't care to remember courtly words and phrases.

_Well, well, _he can almost hear. _Look at you. _A sassy grin and exasperated amusement. _About time._

For a moment, Toby feels a thrill of victory. The Labyrinth is a tingle and a brush of displaced air, different than before, smoother. Everything goes black in a blink, all of his senses sucked into a vacuum. There is dark in his eyes, stopping up his ears and nose, dull nothing on his skin and tongue.

Yet oddly, he thinks he smells coconut.

His hearing returns first, the _thump-thump-thump _of his own heart like thunder.

And the walls of the throne room surround them, and Toby all but melts onto the floor in gratitude and bone-shaking relief. Then someone shrieks, and he jerks unsteady back up to his feet just to see a small, redhead barrel into Emma's stomach, and they both fall over.

That's their cue apparently.

The Runners rush the pillow pit. Jason punts one goblin out of his way, and the others scurry to avoid the same fate. He snatches up two little boys in fierce hugs, and the scene repeats all around the room. The goblins swarm away from the Runners because a Runner in the Throne Room is usually Not Good.

Hoggle avoids the crush entirely by sprawling in the Throne, mumbling to himself.

"That was exhausting. Haven't been this tired since - since the Great Waffle War. Now those were exhausting times, I'll tell you. Tired indeed."

No one listens, too busy reuniting with siblings or in Toby's case, wondering how exactly he's going to get them all home properly since he still doesn't trust the Labyrinth or himself not to botch it; or if he's going to have to arrange for rooms for everyone.

_Do we have a linen closet? _He wonders.

_No, dear boy, but we've a linen hall_, the feminine, not-his voice assures him.

_Now_ she's nice. After all that, she decides to be accommodating. Toby did not understand the Labyrinth at all.

_... stop being in my head right now please._

A sly giggle and then it's just his own thoughts, and he hopes this doesn't become a thing.

"My, oh my, my, my. You have been busy, haven't you?"

Everyone freezes, except Hoggle who violently throws himself off the Throne. Toby looks to see the Goblin King in his full regalia, all six feet and flyaway hair and imperious air, staring down his nose at them all. He has always just been Jareth to Toby. But he realizes that the Goblin King, with his ways and otherness, is intimidating. And the King knows it, the jerk, and he's doing it on purpose.

He thinks this is funny. Toby can tell from the smirk. All of them exhausted and terrified, ragged, and dirty. His head aches and a few other places are going to bruise beautifully. Also, he has an issue with the timing, him showing up _after_ it's all said and done. Where was he an hour ago, somewhere watching and laughing? He won, he saved the day on his own, and his brother shows up just now to have a laugh.

It quite suddenly infuriates him.

* * *

The Labyrinth greets him like a cat, peering eyes and a hiss only to twine her way around his feet and scratch his boots. She's pleased he's back, and he had better not leave like this again.

The rude young man who found them (and unknowingly, secretly won Jareth's eternal gratitude) all but runs to a little boy with big ears who squeals when he picks him up. Adorable child, all dark eyes and hair. He glances at Sarah at his side, all dark hair and eyes.

"Where. Have you. Been?" Toby bites out, stomping up to them.

The boy is in a huff, face red and furious and so much like his sister. He can't help ruffling his hair a little. As he does, he feels all the wrong bits in Toby, the bruises and bumps,and soothes them. Toby notices, but it only appears to make him more angry.

Jareth grins, rapier sharp.

"Well, we were enjoying a lovely visit and having tea with Mother when this rascal shows up."

_"Look, I've had a really long night. I found you so I want my brother back, and I wanna go home now if you're done with this little tea party."_

"What with matters of the state to tend to, Mother gave us her leave."

_"Lazy boy. You've been hiding here to avoid running your kingdom. Worse than your great idiot of a father. Get out then."_

"And we rushed back as soon as we could."

_"I desperately want a latte. Anything for you, precious?"_

Sarah gave her husband a look and took a sip of her coffee.

"Anyway," she drawled, "Nothing is on fire, the place is intact, and the chickens haven't dethroned you. Good job, Toby."

"Yes, indeed, a good job. You'd make a fine Goblin King, I'm sure."

Toby scowls at him, and Jareth is surprised at the viciousness he feels behind it. He glances at Sarah who's already fussing over the Runners and Wished Aways and Herbert-or-whatever the troll. She misses it completely.

"Well, you must be ready to get home. Shall I send you off then see to these -"

"No," Toby cuts him off.

Jareth blinks. Toby never interrupts him. Toby listens to every word that falls from his mouth, even when he wishes didn't because everything he says shouldn't be repeated in front of his wife.

"You're going to send them back first," Toby says.

"As I understand it, you cheated." The Labyrinth has been whispering details of the Runs. Jareth doesn't even look at the Runners. He can feel the fear and hostility.

"_She_ cheated first." Toby offers him a crystal, without a bit of flair. Jareth frowns at that, knowing how proud his baby brother-in-law is of his skills. He takes it, looks, and sees _everything_ in a single moment.

He gapes a little.

"She loosed the clowns!? We _never_ loose the clowns, you know that!" He scolds, puffing up with indignation and a dark cloud of displeasure around him.

He gets the impression of rolled eyes and _I never get to do anything fun. _

"Put them back," he commands and knows that he is being obeyed. He turns his back to Toby and looks over at his wife, who is surrounded by children with goblins looming curiously nearby. She's holding a sweet little brunette with her elder sister, the Runner, watching her closely. There's a dark boy who sits in the middle but away from everyone with twins held firmly in his lap; his lip is bleeding. The blond boy - A-something- is being crawled over by the big eared child. Two sisters, one blonde enough to rival him, the other red haired, cry over each other noisily.

Jareth eyes Toby who is only Sarah's half brother, but he had the same angry, stubborn tilt about him.

"You want me them all put back?"

"Yes."

"Suppose I don't," he says, shrugging away the starry twilight shroud about his shoulders. "Suppose I start this over, and we run this properly."

The dark one, _Jason_ the Labyrinth tells him, has been watching him, and he fairly curls around his siblings. Jareth expects some childish reaction from Toby. He expects him to stomp his foot and whine about the unfairness of it all. He expects him to threaten to tell Sarah.

"_We_ will do no such thing. We made a promise. We will send them back."

Jareth is again surprised that Toby remembers his lessons on the importance of words and promises and the concept of the 'royal We'. The entirety of his kingdom rests on his words and decrees, and an oath by one who sits on the Throne and wears the Pendant holds power.

"Not honoring that kind of promise would be unwise." Though annoyed, Jareth agrees easily and snaps his fingers.

The Runners and Wished-Aways vanish, only a layer of sparkling dust to leave a trace. Sarah splutters in the middle of it. Jareth, pleased with himself, expects maybe a little gratitude or a show of admiration from Toby, for he is generous and wonderful.

But all he says is, "I want to go home now. To Friday night."

He blinks owlishly. "I realize you've had a rough time of it, Toby, but you needn't rush off. You're welcome to stay in your room here, and -"

Toby interrupts him _again_, and Jareth begins to hate it.

"Thanks, but I'd rather just go home."

Jareth glares at him. Toby doesn't fidget, or look even the slightest bit intimidated or unsure. He meets the look with a scowl of his own.

"As you wish."

Toby blinks.

* * *

He opens his eyes and finds himself standing in his bathroom, toothbrush in hand. He's not sure if he's brushed them all ready and runs his tongue over his teeth. Clean.

He puts it away and shuffles into his room, feeling every day he's lived in the past few minutes. He wonders for a moment of the consequences to living in two worlds that don't follow the same rules of time, but dismisses it. He's only twelve, and his head is clear enough to know it's nothing worth thinking about.

He's already in his pajamas and falls into bed, sighing.

Tomorrow, he thinks, I'll hang out with my friends. We'll play video games, and baseball with only four bases and a real ball, and no goblins or chickens. The sky will be blue, the sunshine yellow and warm.

He falls asleep and, gratefully, does not dream.

* * *

Jareth scowls at the spot where Toby disappeared. Sarah bumps his side, and he reaches out for her hand. The way her fingers curl around his is familiar and, for that reason, comforting.

"What's got you in a mood?"

"He's growing up."

"Yeah, he is," She says it so fondly, so...nostalgic. Like he's already gone and done it, the terrible brat. Like he had the right. "How cute is that?"

She's happy about it. He can't fathom how human she is at times.

Jareth hates it. His realm rarely changes, and he likes it that way. The last change were the drapes in the third great room on the fifth floor in the west wing, and that's only because moths had eaten them to tatters; they didn't really go in the west wing very much.

He doesn't like the idea of Toby changing, growing up, moving on. He hates the idea.

Loathes it. Abhors it and the fact that it's going to be staring him in the face even more much sooner. Toby is almost thirteen after all, and that isn't just an arbitrary number he pulled from the ether.

Toby's childhood is ending. He won't need Jareth. He'll become an adult with responsibility and priorities and no time for this place. And Jareth will still think of his running and sliding down the halls in his socks, and eating too many sweets, and playing pirates, and his delight at the simplest displays of magic.

Little Toby, all grown up...

What a horrible thought.

"Jareth?"

Sarah is looking at him, and he's so glad that the Magic that keeps him as he is will keep her the same. He will not see her age and fade before him, before she should. Not without him. He reaches for her, and she comes to him, leans into his embrace, and he is so relieved to have her there.

"What's wrong?"

He pulls back enough so he can see her face, the love and concern, and worry and fear for him (better than fear _of _him, he will admit to himself).

"Precious. Sarah...I want a baby."

"_What!?_"

"A girl would be preferable."

* * *

_A/N_

Somewhere (probably during the years in which I tried to figure out that climax), this developed a deeper plot from 'Jareth is irresponsible and thoughtless' to 'Toby grows up a little and it breaks Jareth's heart a little.'

Grow up and away.

This is irrelevant, but the Time Lord is a reference to Doctor Who which I can't commit to because every other episode I try to watch (Waters of Mars, the specials, _Amy_ and beautiful _Rory_ _ow my heart why_) makes me wanna cry, and I can't. Although I've almost convinced myself that Jareth is quarter Gallifreyan…

Finally done.


End file.
